Page 78 of Mountains Divide Us

Just then, the front door opened, and a cold blast of snow rushed in at us, and then there she was. Deputy Abey Lee. “Hey, y’all. Just checkin’ in. Frank wanted me to make sure you—” She looked at me, clearly seeing the panic on my face. “What’s wrong?”

“Have you talked to Frank?”

“Yeah,” she said, “’bout half an hour ago. Why?”

“He’s been in an accident. I was just talking to him on the phone when it happened. I think he’s hurt.”

Abey nodded. The few times I’d met her, she was usually smiling or joking, but now, a seriousness was taking over her face. She held her thumb over the microphone button on her shoulder radio, raising it closer to her mouth. “This is Deputy Lee. I need a location for Deputy Sims. Shelley? You there?”

“Yeah, here,” a woman replied. “Frank’s over by the library. He’s still lookin’ for that boy.”

That was all I needed. The library wasn’t far. Pulling my mittens on, I ran out the open door and down the icy steps. I nearly slipped and fell on my ass, but sheer determination kept me on my feet as I slid across a patch of ice until my feet found purchase on the snow again. I could barely hear Brady and Theo behind me, holding Grum back and calling after me, begging me to stop.

Frank had been right. It was an utter whiteout. I couldn’t see two feet in front of my face, but I kept going. I could kind of tell where the sidewalk was, though the snow was already deep enough that it was hard to see, but as long as I stayed in my current direction in the middle of Main Street, I’d eventually end up on Franklin, and the library was only one block to the west once I made it there.

The freezing air was making it hard to keep a fast pace, though, and I wasn’t the most physically fit person in the world. I slowed. I had to. I couldn’t run and breathe at the same time, not in this cold, but a truck rolled up beside me. Its tires crunched on the snow beneath them, and then I heard Abey’s voice and saw blue and red lights reflecting off the vortex of white surrounding me.

She called out her window, “Hop in, lil’ lady. I’ll take you over there.”

I stopped, looking over at her with frozen tears stuck below my eyes. Grum’s nose was pressed against her back window as he whined and yipped for me.

“You comin’?”

When I climbed in the passenger side, she waited for me to click my seatbelt into place and then took off at one freaking mile an hour, and Grum leaned over the seat to lick my face.

“Hi, buddy.” Panting hard, breathing in the warm air blasting through the heater, I was trying to thaw my burning lungs, but it was still cold enough in her cruiser for my breath to come out in a white huff. “Can you go faster? Please?”

“Actually, no, I can’t. It won’t do for us to get in an accident too. How’s that gonna help Frank?”

“I know, but—”

She glanced at me for a second but then fixed her eyes back on the blizzard swirling angrily in front of us. “You really like him, don’tcha?”

“Yes. I love him.”

I did. When that had happened, I had no clue. It was just a couple of weeks ago that I was trying to convince myself we were too different. But somewhere between our first date, our epic cake-eating and dry-humping sessions, and now, Frank had lured me in. His dedication and insistence on finding Murphy, the way he never spoke, and all the lovely things that came out of his mouth on the rare occasions when he did—all of it was beautiful.

I’d never felt so cherished, so loved and protected. Even earlier today, when he was so angry with me, he made sure I had a ride to a building only a few blocks away so I wouldn’t have to walk in the storm, and he called me just to hear my voice. He was out in a seriously scary weather situation, risking his life for this little town and all her residents. He was risking his life for a boy he knew nothing about.

How could I not love him?

“Well, ain’t that somethin’,” Abey said. “I’m glad to hear it. The grouch deserves some happiness.” She reached over to pat my hands folded in my lap. I was squeezing the crap out of my own fingers. “He’s a tough ol’ bastard. He’ll be okay.”

But she couldn’t know that.

* * *

It felt like it took three days, but we finally pulled up beside Frank’s truck another block west of the library. His lights were turning and flashing on top, and the car that had hit him was still there, still rammed into Frank’s driver’s-side door, but there wasn’t anyone in it. I couldn’t even determine the color of the car, there was so much snow piled on top of it already.

Frank was nowhere to be found. His passenger door was open, the interior light was on, and the airbags surrounding his seat were out and deflated. Grum jumped up, sniffing the seat and the steering wheel.

“Where is he!”

Usually in Wisper, when there was a car accident or someone was hurt, neighbors would flood the streets, trying to help or at least find out what had happened so they could call everyone they knew, but now, there was no one. The storm was so loud, the wind so powerful, that I didn’t think anyone had heard the accident.

Abey called the station on her radio again, and I turned, searching, looking everywhere for Frank. I thought I could see a light on at the library in the distance, but I knew for sure that I’d turned them all off. I ran in that direction, and this time, Abey and Grum followed me on foot, but once Grum caught Frank’s scent, he took off like a flash of furry yellow light.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

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